Directors Karim Dridi and Julien Gaertner have launched a call for participatory funding for their next documentary Hakawati, les derniers conteurs, on the platform Kiskissbankbank. If the amount reaches €10,000, that sum will be handed over to the production company Mirak Film to complete post-production and translate the dialogue from Arabic into French.
The film is about Mounira and Radi, a 65-year-old couple, both puppeteers, who are setting off for their last tour of Israel and Palestine in their very ancient van. The couple are exhausted from continually erecting and dismantling the stage, performing three shows in a row in front of hundreds of madly excited children, all under a scorching sky. After 40 years on the road, is it time to stop? As they travel they keep asking themselves the same question. From the Nakab desert to the borders of Lebanon and Syria, from the hills of Galilee to Ramallah and refugee camps in the West Bank, doubt undermines the couple.
Lost in Jericho, terrified by the bombs falling near Majd Al Shams, destabilized by Bedouin children in the Negev who seem confused about their own identity, the puppeteers no longer know whether their work means anything anymore. Through their shows they maintain their people’s identity, but at what cost? Is their commitment worth sacrificing their health, even their love?
For this second documentary about Palestinian identity, Karim Dridi and Julien Gaertner said they wanted to “show that the commitment and struggle to defend one’s identity and culture can be done without advocating violence, without reveling in being the victim. With us, resistance must be peaceful, cultural, human, sensitive … Artistic!” They also explain why they chose to film a pair of puppeteers: “This time we follow a couple of Hakawati, the traditional Arab storyteller, a sort of last thread linking the different Palestinian communities.”
You can support the project here: https://www.kisskissbankbank.com/fr/projects/hakawati/tabs/description
